one of the government’s top doctors warned Tuesday that As many as 240,000 people in the U.S. could die from COVID-19 — and that’s only with strict social distancing measures in place.

Dr. Deborah Birx, Vice President Mike Pence’s coronavirus response coordinator, said that between 1.5 and 2.2 million could die without the intervention. Already, the death toll in the United States has surpassed the number of people killed on Sept. 11, 2001.